Pages

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The dragonflies were out in force at Cougar Creek Park yesterday, mostly in couples. They were dressed in shimmering black and blue, or dazzling reds; some wore white, some brown. One had green eyes, and another was resplendent in silver and silky sheers.

We managed to catch a few of them at rest.

A common whitetail male, Libellula (Plathemis) lydia, with a blue tail.

The tail is not white, and I wondered about that. I found the explanation on BugGuide: he's a young male whose tail has not reached its full brilliance. I like the blue better, but then, I'm not a whitetail dragonfly, so my opinion doesn't count.

Another dragonfly that I saw and got only a couple of shots at (although the camera couldn't find it to focus), was almost invisible. A big dragonfly, but with transparent wings, and a shimmery, silvery, mirror-like pale body. The camera just looked straight through it, and it shows up as a shiny fog over the background. I looked everywhere for a transparent dragonfly, with no luck until I happened across it with the whitetails on BugGuide. It's a female whitetail, just hatched from its nymph stage.

1 comment:

About Me

I'm a nature blogger, from Delta, the Lower Fraser Valley, BC, Canada. I'm over 65, a lover of birds, green stuff, multi-legged beasties, and the critters that squirm, slither and scramble on our beaches.